Arizona!

I stayed up a little too late last night goofing around on the computer, so that I didn't even hear my alarm as I had it set to go off at 3:25am. No wonder... I shouldn't have been so surprised... if I'm tired enough, only a person can wake me up. Thankfully, Meg had a backup alarm and did so. We made it just in time to the airport that I walked up to my gate right when they began boarding. Whew! I then slept off and on the whole way down. Little reading at first, but I was so tired. I saw a bit of the Grand Canyon while we were descending... through the clouds.

Mom & Dad and Zac were still an hour away when I arrived, so I bought a Newsweek magazine (they had a feature on the war) and I had a bagel with egg and cheddar cheese and waited to get picked up. Thank goodness for cell phones! And we met.

The first thing we did was go to the Men's Warehouse so Zac could get measured for the wedding... and while that was going on, I stopped into Old Navy across the parking lot and found a couple pairs of khaki pants (they always fit so well from that place - and I hardly ever go to them). I changed into the lighter pair because of the warm weather.

We then headed north to the Peoria Sports Complex for an afternoon of America's favorite pastime. The Seattle Mariners were facing off against the San Diego Padres for spring training. We got some concessions and my brother got a cap and we walked around the small, open air stadium. Our seats were very good, right across from 1st base behind the dugout. We saw every close play at first up close!

The game started off slow, but picked up in the 2nd. We scored first, and SD answered with 2. The third inning was two blanks, but in fourth we tied it up with one more, and then both teams scored 2 in the fifth for a 4-4 tie. Then in the sixth we took over with 1 more, and then we knocked them out in the seventh with 2 more. And the game ended that way, 7 to 4. One of our guys... Mike Sweeney... hit 4 for 4 with a home run and a triple. And of course, Ryan Langerhans was there too... It was such a fabulous game! The sun was at our backs (it was brilliant sunshine with small, puffy clouds) and the scoreboard was right in front. Couldn't have asked for anything better than this.


So my brother needed to get his weekly haircut before returning to work on Monday, so we waited at a local mall while he got his hair higher & tighter. We all had Cold Stone ice creme, and then checked into the motel. We got everything straightened out and then went to my brother's favorite restaurant on earth (that's missing from Yuma, poor guy), Chipotle Mexican Grill, where we all got very large burritos. I contacted Rita while I was out the motel, and she gave me a call while we were there. Tomorrow when everyone leaves (before I have to leave) the two of us are going to meet for dinner! And we'll have a bit of time to hang out before she takes me to the airport! I'm so excited! :)

What a great weekend this is!
Jp